It's that time of the year again; that time when 16 wannabe chefs (most of whom are in all likelihood chosen for their ability to create TV drama rather than for their cooking ability) subject themselves to virtually endless tantrums and abuse from chef Gordon Ramsay. This season, the winner will become the "head chef" of Ramsay's new restaurant at the Savoy Hotel in London, England (although not really, as the winners of the show historically have never actually become head chefs, but rather a senior chef working under someone else). After the jump, you can read the full recap.
The chefs arrived at Hell's Kitchen to be greeted by a crowd of reporters and photographers. They introduced themselves to the reporters and to us, and were divided into two teams:
Red Team (Women)
Stacey, 38 - Private chef for celebrities
Nilka, 28 - Line chef
Autumn, 29 - Personal chef
Holli, 24 - Banquet chef
Siobhan, 25 - Pub executive chef
Fran, 44 - Catering chef
Maria, 24 - Kitchen supervisor
Jaime, 26 - Sous chef
Blue Team (Men)
Jason, 37 - Personal chef
Ed, 28 - High school cooking teacher
Scott, 32 - Executive chef
Mikey, 29 - Line cook
Andrew, 28 - Farmer
Salvatore, 35 - Pizzeria chef
Benjamin, 33 - Culinary instructor
Jay, 32 - Executive chef
After greeting the chefs, Ramsay guaranteed the media that they would complete the first dinner service (a rarity in Hell's Kitchen). Once the media had gone, the chefs began the traditional first challenge, in which each chef prepared his or her signature dish in 45 minutes for Ramsay to taste. The first woman introduced herself as a stay-at-home mom, but didn't give her name. Ramsay loved her dish, and proceeded to make out with the woman, who turned out to be his wife in disguise. He explained that there was a purpose to doing this (something about proving that anyone can impress him or something; I don't know, it was a pretty pointless part of the show), and proceeded with the actual competition. Some of the highlights of the competition included Salvatore explaining that despite the fact that he had been in America for 21 years, he had kept his Italian accent because the ladies loved it, Mikey revealing that he had recently gotten the Hell's Kitchen logo tattooed on his side (he'd better hope he wins, or that'll be a tattoo he regrets forever. Then again, with his hair--sort of a combination of a pompadour and a Mohawk--he probably doesn't give two shits what anyone thinks about anything), and Andrew claiming that he loved to eat raw animals, and that if he wins Hell's Kitchen he's going to buy two walk-in coolers so he can butcher his own animals, "which is what I like to do" (Ramsay then asked him if he was "some kind of Hell's Kitchen Hannibal Lecter").
The men won the signature dish challenge, with a surprising number of dishes that Ramsay enjoyed from both teams. They retired to the dorms, where they spent the night studying the menu (with the help of instructional videos by Chef Ramsay that played every 10 minutes or so until about 2:00 in the morning, accompanied by a fire alarm every time a video was starting).
The Red Team was woken up early the next morning for their punishment for losing the challenge: they had to cook breakfast in bed for the Blue Team. Following breakfast, everyone went to the kitchen to prep for the dinner service, where it became clear that the men, while not perfect, had their shit together far more than the women. This was reflected at dinner service as well. Jay and Nilka were stationed out on the floor to prepare Caesar salads tableside for the guests, in order to keep them happy. In the kitchen, teams were fucking up left and right, and Ramsay was, predictably, losing his mind over it. Every time I watch the show I can't help but think about what a miserable experience eating at Hell's Kitchen must be; the kitchen is open to the restaurant, so presumably the diners are forced to spend the entire evening listening to Ramsay screaming obscenities at the contestants. He didn't disappoint in that respect, kicking garbage cans and throwing food as much as ever. Eventually he got so fed up that he started kicking people out of the kitchen. Jamie, Maria, Fran, and Stacy were booted from the Red Kitchen, while Salvatore, Benjamin, and Mikey were kicked out of the Blue Kitchen. At this point, Ramsay decided to merge the remaining 9 chefs into one team in a last-ditch attempt to complete the dinner service. They succeeded, finishing the service on a strong note and appearing to impress Ramsay (although with the way these shows are edited, who knows what's really happening).
Despite the fact that he had merged the two teams to complete the service, Ramsay still declared the Red Team the losers, and ordered them to nominate two people for elimination. Back in the dorms, the women discussed who should be nominated, with Stacey admitting her errors, and Maria and Fran completely denying that they had done anything wrong. Stacey and Fran ended up being nominated for the poor quality of their respective services. Fran argued that she had not been the worst on her team (which isn't true--at least from what was shown, she made way more mistakes than anyone else; at one point she mistook crab meat for lobster). When Ramsay asked her about her lobster-crab fuckup, and quizzed her on how many legs a lobster has, she claimed that she was a Kosher chef, and therefore shouldn't be expected to know that sort of thing.
In the end, Ramsay eliminated Stacey (I assume we just didn't get to see exactly how bad her service was), and stated that "It's a good thing Stacey's a private chef; her food wasn't good enough for the public."
The only real standout chef so far has been Ed, who was quiet for most of the episode before essentially taking over the kitchen and making it run smoothly once the remainders of the two teams had combined. Autumn tried similarly to run the Red Kitchen, but it really seemed more like she was just standing around barking orders, while Ed was very hands-on in his authority. Salvatore seems like he's going to be good for some comic relief, if nothing else, while Andrew is a goddamn psychopath, and it'll be interesting to see whether that affects his relationships with the others. From the previews it looks like Holli is going to be the resident slut, which is unfortunate because she is the opposite of good-looking. Jason seemed like he was going to be someone I'd enjoy watching for the first third of the show, but it quickly became evident that he's created this "from da hood" persona, and is going to talk like a rapper for the entirety of the season--that's going to get old really quickly. On a final note, I'd forgotten just how annoying the editing on this show can be; they're absolutely obsessed with cliffhangers--every nomination they will state the name of the first nominee, then say "the second nominee is..." and it'll go to commercial, and we'll have to watch the scene over again after the break. It gets old really quickly, because there's so much repetition on the show. Still, it's addictive, and it makes for some decent TV, if only to see who will crack under the pressure, and who will push back against Chef Ramsay.
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